First the good; the quality and design of the outer box is superb. This thing will look amazing sitting on your shelf. The matte black with the color contrast of the logo and colors are just such a nice touch. It has a nice weight to it as well.

Unfortunately for me, the good ends there.

Firstly, the box uses a magnetic clasp to open the box. While this in theory is good, this will cause the crease to open it to immediately show damage and, eventually, rip apart. This honestly isn't a huge deal to me, but it matters to some.

Secondly and the part that DOES matter to me, is that besides another top flap logo and a measly piece of cardboard (mine of which was just flattened on the bottom), there is nothing inside. NOTHING. No compartments holding parts of it in place or artwork of the game or characters. It's quite literally an empty box that your stuff sits in "loosely", as support called it.

Your game disc is in a small cardboard sleeve, your soundtrack also in a cardboard case and not a jewel case. This all seems like shoddy work from a team that should know how to handle Collector Editions. It definitely makes me somewhat envious of those who dropped out and got the retail CE with the statue and makes me feel like those of us who pledged higher for the CE were an afterthought.

I did not get the CE this time around. I liked the WL2 CE. It has me wondering if this came as a surprise to InXile ~or not.
I guess we'll see soon how this plays out [or if it simply already has]. I would have been disappointed with that, and if not for the hardback book, I'd have considered it almost a standard Wal*mart edition, (if there is one).

Add to that the cloth map which wasn't printed on cloth and the promised DRM-free disc which turned out to be a Steam installer ... as well as the fact that the art book is way too small to do justice to the artwork and the box way too big (they wanted to match the size of the PoE CE, but also fit in the same small-sized stuff from the retail CE.)

KS CEs were indeed an afterthought. They cost more, 4 years in advance, and are poor quality to boot.

"It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question, and he'll look for his own answers."— Kvothe, The Wise Man's Fear

I received mine today... And after the (very) short "wow" moment when I saw the box, the first word that came to me was EMPTY.

A big, empty box.

I was also chocked by the very poor shape of the inside... I was about to take pictures when I saw yours here. The inside of my CE looks the same.

I bought the retail CE for my wife, and now I can easily compare both CE... And the backer one definitely looks like a very bad joke.
I was OK with the waiting, OK with the changes, the bad communication... I was even OK(ish) with waiting 5 weeks after the release date to receive a reward for a pledge I made years ago...
But this...

I feel cheated. Definitely. A big empty box, with poor content. The inside is barely glued together and does not look even like the photo that was posted on the 66th update...

I pledged for a Collector's Edition and received a cheap almost empty box that will only look impressive as long as I don't open it.
The "backer only" rewards being the box and a map (and the price that was twice what I paid for the retail CE on Amazon)...

I have a few CE, and that backer CE pales in comparison with any of them... Even compared to the classic Planescape Torment big box I fail to have any "collector" feel here.

I love InXile, and I was all for supporting them... I convinced many of my friends to pledge for this game... And now I feel the need to apologize to them when I see what they will receive.

I can't understand what happened for them to despise their backers to such a point.

I'm so disappointed I'm not even angry. I feel I was naive to believe promises would be kept.

I already backed Wasteland 3... To be honest, I wouldn't have pledged a cent for W3 had they launched the campaign now...

I'll keep enjoying InXile games, but I don't think I'll be able to trust them for future crowdfunding campaigns. I'll stick to backing people who stay true to their word and demonstrate more appreciation for their backers (namely Larian, and Obsidian)

... and the promised DRM-free disc which turned out to be a Steam installer

Unconscionable IMO. Obsidian truly irritated when they did that with the FO:New Vegas CE (though they may not have had a choice in that).

The point of acquiring a disc is to have a local physical installer. It's absurd to put only a stub on a disc; and it makes the user feel dejected when they expected to be able to install without Internet access, and cannot. Some people don't have suitable Internet access to download a multi-gigabyte game, and that's a big reason they might look to buy a physical disc.

*WL2 was the same way with its installer DVD, but they did offer a limited run of (truly) DRM free DVD (non-Steam) installer discs for those that asked. One can hope they will repeat this again with Torment. I missed my chance to get the DRM-free discr, but one of the devs was exceptionally nice, and hand addressed one that they still had in the office, and sent it to me.

Unconscionable IMO. Obsidian truly irritated when they did that with the FO:New Vegas CE (though they may not have had a choice in that).

Obsidian almost certainly didn't have any choice in the matter, since Bethesda owns the IP and published the game. Bethesda staff have made public statements in the past about how they deliberately use Steam as a form of DRM, by requiring the Steam platform to complete installation of their games.

I believe that's how they've handled their last five or six major releases, and before that I believe they essentially did the same thing with the "Gaming for Windows Live" platform (which I remember having to install for Fallout 3).

Wait so the CD that was included isn't a game install CD, I have to have steam to use that disc? Are you freaking kidding me?

Unfortunately, we are not.

"It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question, and he'll look for his own answers."— Kvothe, The Wise Man's Fear

I got mine today too and I'm very disappointed... The box looks good on the outside, but when I opened it I though I got a defective one - the inside is ripped in few places, the cardboard frame was collapsed on one side and the content is just thrown in loosely inside. Then I look at this forum and apparently this is how it's supposed to be...

But maybe the content of the box is better I thought - sadly not, this is what we get:

CD in cardboard envelope containing Steam installer + code to download the game and DLC - I wasn't planning on checking the CD (I'm using digital download anyway), but I couldn't believe when someone above wrote about this. Yes, we do NOT get a physical copy of the game

CD in slightly better cardboard envelope with soundtrack - this one is ok, no complaints

printed game manual - a 40 page brochure with some basic overview. Comparing this to a manual of some old RPG (e.g. Baldur's Gate 2) this looks really miserable

art book - hard cover, good quality, looks nice except for the fact it's very small (14cm x 20cm)

And that's it. Compared to retail CE edition it's a bad joke. I understand that the game itself is the most important part and it is the reason why people were backing this project, but looking at what I got in return for my pledge I feel really disappointed.

On top of CE I also pledge for a Torment poster, because I really liked the concept art they were showing during Kickstarter campaign and in the updates. This is a weird one - instead of the cool art we were shown before the poster is just a drawing of First Castoff done mostly in blue, with names of all the backers in the background. It's kinda cool and nice in it's own way, but I thought I was going to get something different.

If I will ever again back inXile Kickstarter campaign I won't pledge any higher than basic digital download, which is a sad conclusion from a project I was so excited about.

IIRC it was said that the game manual in the KS CE was to be thicker than the one in the retail CE. Can anyone who own both confirm whether that is the case?

Not that this would make much of a difference at all at this point...

"It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question, and he'll look for his own answers."— Kvothe, The Wise Man's Fear

I have a problem with not getting a physical copy of the game. That is absolutely ridiculous, the whole reason I backed for a physical copy was to get a physical copy. Not a steam or gog version, I want the game on an install CD that I can load onto any computer I find working during or after an apocalypse and play. I'm not complaining about anything else at this point, what's done is done, but I paid for a "Physical" copy of the game and didn't receive that.

I generally agree here, certainly about getting a physical copy in the physical boxed set; but I have a question: Aside from cosmetics, what difference to you ascribe to the GoG version, and a Disc installer [when GoG installers can be run from a disc]?

*If it's not only the cosmetics of the discs [which I can understand wanting]... A disc can hold the GoG installer; and can even be printed with the games cover label. 'Legend of Grimrock' didn't see a boxed release [afaik], but those guys, and that community are cool, and there is actually a PDF of for a DVD case that looks 100% legit.
There could be one for Torment, and/or any other digitally released title.

Well just like I said, 20 years down the road GOG and Steam may disappear. Yes I could make my own backup disc, but why? Why then did I pledge for a physical copy? I could have just purchased the digital download and made my own yes? There was deceptive and false information provided in the advertising and transaction.

I agree that vast majority of people would not actually ever use the CDs to install the game, but buying a physical copy and receiving a Steam installer plus download code is such a bizarre idea for me. It's maybe not such a big deal on it's own (though definitely totally unexpected and undesired surprise), combined with all the other small, disappointing things it make the Kickstarter CE a let down.

Well just like I said, 20 years down the road GOG and Steam may disappear.

well, "20 years down the road" your CD's probably wont work anyway. Their life expectancy is arround 15 years, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Considering I have 25 year old game CDs that are still working and have never had one fail I'll disagree. Plus, working as a professional in media technologies I can tell you CDs will be around for a long time as there is still no other media storage as reliable for consumer use.